Rowling launches novel to fanfare, mixed reviewsLONDON (AP) — After months of hype and anticipation, J.K. Rowling’s first novel for adults has appeared, swept into the arms of hopeful booksellers and an army of grown-up Harry Potter fans eager to find out what his creator has done next. A gritty and darkly humorous tale of ugly realities in a pretty English village, “The Casual Vacancy” seems a long way from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and reviewers gave it a mixed recep...

Town debates future of house of Hitler’s birthBRAUNAU, Austria (AP) — Living space in Braunau is scarce, but an imposing Renaissance-era building stands empty in this post-card pretty Austrian town because of the sinister shadow cast by a former tenant: Adolf Hitler. With its thick walls, huge arched doorway and deep-set windows, the 500-year-old house near the town square would normally be prime property. Because Hitler was born here, it has become a huge headache for town fathers forced...

Syrian military’s text to rebels: ’Game over’BEIRUT (AP) — Cellphones in Syria rang, buzzed and chirped Thursday with an ominous text message from the military to members of the armed rebellion: “Game over.” The rebels provided their own response to the regime’s warning to surrender and disarm by launching new attacks to drive government troops out of the largest city of Aleppo. There’s no indication that the stalemated civil war has taken a decisive turn in any direction, however, and t...

Egypt’s Morsi assumes major role in MideastUNITED NATIONS (AP) — Egypt’s new President Mohammed Morsi assigned himself the heavyweight’s role in the Middle East on Wednesday, declaring in his first speech to the United Nations that the civil war raging in Syria is the “tragedy of the age” and must be brought to an end. In a wide-ranging address that touched on all major issues confronting the region, Morsi also decried Israeli settlement-building on territory Palestinians claim for a f...

Rebels strike Syrian power center with car bombsBEIRUT (AP) — Syrian rebels struck deep in the fortress-like inner sanctum of President Bashar Assad’s rule Wednesday in Damascus, detonating two car bombs that engulfed the army headquarters in flames. The suicide bombings and subsequent gun battles in the Syrian capital killed at least five people, including a reporter for Iranian TV. The carefully orchestrated attacks highlighted the regime’s growing vulnerability, even as the 18-month batt...

UN chief demands global action to end war in Syria UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon demanded international action to stop the war in Syria, telling a somber gathering of world leaders Tuesday that the 18-month conflict had become “a regional calamity with global ramifications.” In sharp contrast to the U.N. chief, President Barack Obama pledged U.S. support for Syrians trying to oust President Bashar Assad — “a dictator who massacres his own people.” Opening the U.N. General...

Panetta: US surge troops out of AfghanistanAUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) — Nearly two years after President Barack Obama ordered 33,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan to tamp down the escalating Taliban violence, the last of those surge troops have left the country, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Friday. Panetta said the “surge did accomplish it objectives of reversing the Taliban momentum on the battlefield and dramatically increase the size and capability of the Afghan nation...

Islam vs tolerance debated in Prophet film’s wakeCAIRO (AP) — Behind the anger over a film mocking the Prophet Muhammad, public protest is giving way to measured debate over free speech in the new Muslim world. But while many crave more openness, few if any will go so far as to say that includes the right to blaspheme. Angry shouts of “No, no to America!” and “No to Israel!” have been balanced by voices condemning the weeklong violence that has targeted U.S. and other Western embassies and l...

West accuses Iran of shipping arms to Syria UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The four Western powers trying to rein in Iran’s nuclear program accused Tehran on Thursday of shipping arms to Syria in violation of U.N. sanctions and ignoring demands to open key nuclear facilities to U.N. inspectors. The United States, Britain, France and Germany expressed growing concern that Iran’s goal is building a nuclear arsenal — not nuclear power plants for peaceful civilian use, as Tehran insists. U.S. Ambass...

Syrian activists: airstrikes kill at least 30 BEIRUT (AP) — Regime airstrikes hit a gas station in northern Syria Thursday, setting off a fiery explosion that killed at least 30 people and wounded dozens, opposition activists said. Amateur video showed thick black smoke engulfing the scene. Earlier Thursday, a Syrian military helicopter crashed near the capital of Damascus, and Syria’s Information Ministry said the helicopter went down after its rotor accidentally clipped the tail of a Sy...

UK soldier unexpectedly gives birth in Afghanistan LONDON (AP) — Hours after a British soldier in Afghanistan told medics she was suffering from stomach pains, the Royal Artillery gunner unexpectedly gave birth to a boy — the first child ever born to a member of Britain’s armed forces in combat. Britain’s defense ministry said Thursday the soldier told authorities she had not been aware she was pregnant and only consulted doctors on the day that she went into labor. The soldier, who arrived in...

Al-Qaida calls for more attacks on embassies CAIRO (AP) — Al-Qaida’s most active branch in the Middle East called for more attacks on U.S. embassies Saturday to “set the fires blazing,” seeking to co-opt outrage over an anti-Muslim film even as the wave of protests that swept 20 countries this week eased. Senior Muslim religious authorities issued their strongest pleas yet against resorting to violence, trying to defuse Muslim anger over the film a day after new attacks on U.S. and Weste...

US consulate attack in Libya said twin operationBENGHAZI, Libya (AP) — Heavily armed militants used a protest of an anti-Islam film as a cover and may have had help from inside Libyan security in their deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate, a senior Libyan official said Thursday. As Libya announced the first four arrests, the clearest picture yet emerged of a two-pronged assault with militants screaming “God is great!” as they scaled the consulate’s outer walls and descended on the compound’s...

US sends Marines to Libya after deadly attackBENGHAZI, Libya (AP) — The U.S. dispatched an elite group of Marines to Tripoli on Wednesday after the mob attack that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans. Officials were investigating whether the rampage was a backlash to an anti-Islamic video with ties to Coptic Christians or a plot to coincide with the anniversary of 9/11. Tuesday’s stunning attack on the American Consulate in Benghazi poses a daunting task for U.S. and Lib...

Pakistan fires kill 283, lax safety laws blamedKARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — Fires at two clothing factories in Pakistan left 283 people dead — many trapped behind locked doors and barred windows — tragedies that highlight workplace perils in a country where many buildings lack basic safety equipment and owners often bribe officials to ignore the violations. The blazes broke out Tuesday night at a garment factory in the southern port city of Karachi and a shoe manufacturer in the eastern city o...

Angry mob kills man suspected in 2 child slayingsGUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Guatemalan authorities say a mob has lynched a man inside a school for allegedly killing two children there. Interior Minister Mauricio Lopez Bonilla says Julio Saquil was drunk when he entered an elementary school in the northern province of Alta Verapaz on Wednesday and slit the throats of two children with a machete. Bonilla says a mob then set the 35-year-old man on fire in the school’s patio and he burned to death. T...

Deadly factory fires in 2 Pakistani cities kill 85KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — Factory fires that broke out in two major cities in Pakistan killed 85 people and injured dozens more, including some who had to break through barred windows and leap to the ground to escape the flames, officials and survivors said Wednesday. Workers recounted how their colleagues were trapped behind blocked exits, and firefighters said that one reason why the blazes were so deadly is that the buildings — a shoe factor...

American killed in Libya protest over filmCAIRO (AP) — Protesters angered over a film that ridiculed Islam’s Prophet Muhammad fired gunshots and burned down the U.S. consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, killing one American diplomat, witnesses and the State Department said. In Egypt, protesters scaled the walls of the U.S. embassy in Cairo and replaced an American flag with an Islamic banner. It was the first such assaults on U.S. diplomatic facilities in either country, ...

Storm moves out to sea after slamming NewfoundlandFORTUNE, Newfoundland (AP) — Post-tropical storm Leslie moved out to sea Tuesday afternoon, hours after its stiff winds and heavy rains pummeled Newfoundland, knocking out power to thousands and forcing the cancellation of all flights at the island’s main airport. Jean-Marc Couturier, a forecaster with the Canadian Hurricane Centre, said Leslie passed through Cape Bonavista in northeastern Newfoundland early Tuesday afternoon, and headed out t...